Mobile Search Important for Businesses, Survey Finds

In a signal that cost-conscious businesses should adapt their business strategy to mobile-based developments, a survey by Compete finds smartphone users are increasingly turning to local search applications to enhance their lives.

Compete, a Kantar Media company, released the results of its
first-quarter 2010 Smartphone Intelligence survey, which showed major
movement in the use of local search, social networking and gaming on
smartphones. The quarterly survey provides behavioral and survey-based
insights into how consumers are using mobile devices such as Apple's
iPhone, BlackBerry devices, Google Android handsets and other
smartphones.

The survey found consumers increasingly rely on their mobile phones to
search for retailers. Nearly one in three smartphone owners has called
or stopped into a local business after finding it using a local search
application, according to the results of the survey. In Q1 alone, close
to a third of Android and iPhone owners discovered at least two new
businesses that they were not previously aware of as a result of using
local search applications.

"With the increasing popularity of local search, retailers should
ensure their sites are optimized for mobile browsers," said Compete's
director of technology and entertainment Danielle Nohe. "Making it easy
for consumers to discover businesses via their devices opens local
companies up to a whole new customer demographic, and savvy businesses
should make sure they're maximizing this opportunity."

Consumers are increasingly accessing social networking sites via their
mobile devices, the survey discovered. According to Compete's findings,
33 percent of smartphone Twitter users primarily send tweets via their
smartphones, and 33 percent of these consumers prefer to read tweets on
their phone. Of those accessing Facebook from their smartphones, the
survey found consumers are increasingly using the devices to read news
feeds (66 percent), post status updates (60 percent), read/reply to
private messages (59 percent) and post photos (44 percent).

"Given the increasing popularity of Facebook, Twitter and other social
sites, it follows that users are eager to access these outlets on their
phones," Nohe summarized "Based on our findings, I recommend marketers
start thinking about new ways to maximize consumers' use of smartphones
on social sites, as mobile adoption will likely only increase with
time."

The survey also found mobile gaming to be increasingly popular with
iPhone users. Slightly over half of iPhone users (51 percent) have five
or more games loaded on their smartphones. In contrast, 46 percent of
BlackBerry users have no games on their devices. Nohe said explained
not only do iPhone owners download more games, they play games more
frequently than do owners of other smartphones. Of the consumers
surveyed, 37 percent of iPhone users report playing games on their
smartphones at least daily and puzzle games seem to be capturing the
majority of this attention.

"It's evident that iPhone owners have embraced mobile gaming," Nohe
said. "Developers should turn their attention to targeting other
smartphone users in an effort to even out the discrepancies in mobile
gaming adoption."

Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.